As Holy Spirit-led revival stirs students’ radical devotion to Jesus on campuses across the nation, historically Black colleges are experiencing powerful outpourings of salvation, repentance, worship and prayer.
A Spirit-filled pastor in Atlanta, Georgia believes student revival and Holy Spirit outpouring is manifesting on campuses near his church—a predominantly Black congregation in the city.
Pastor Arthur Breland highlights three Atlanta-area schools—recognized as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—that show signs of God moving mightily among students.
The lead pastor at United Church Atlanta, Breland notes three campuses that are experiencing fresh outpourings of the Holy Spirit.
Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, along with Clark Atlanta University—all three secular schools—are marked by student revivals like those on other secular and Christian campuses.
“They are gathering in groups of 50 to 70 students to pray, do evangelism, repent of sin and worship Jesus,” Breland wrote on social media.
Hoping to fan the flames of revival, a movement of radical Millennial and Gen Z missionaries will visit four Atlanta-area campuses beginning Monday, March 6th.
A fourth Atlanta school, Morris Brown College, will be the first stop for the missions group that hopes empower students in their Christ-centered callings.
The Black Voices Movement gathering is empowering leaders of color into their Christ-centered calling and it is a tool the Holy Spirit is using to stir even more revival on college campuses and, ultimately, to reach the nations with the gospel.
Comprised of Black evangelists who love Jesus, the cross of Christ and His gospel, BVM is aligned with Circuit Riders, a missions organization that empowers and inspires leaders to share the good news of Jesus.
A student at Morehouse, Carlton Bates travels with BVM, which will boldly proclaim with one voice the name of Jesus on his campus March 8.
Morehouse is one stop in Atlanta and 30 outreaches to HBCUs nationwide.
“There are young Black boys who can look and see that there’s a young Black male that’s going across the nation encouraging people, saying ‘man, if no one else believes in you, I believe in you,'” Bates told a news network during a BVM stop in Greensboro, North Carolina.
After its first event on the Greensboro campus, the BVM team was gripped by the fact that most of the students did not know Jesus.
Full of faith and on fire for Jesus, Bates and his teammates returned the next day to preach the gospel in the student union, a three-story building.
“People stopped in their tracks all across the student union as he boldly says, ‘If you know you need to give your life to Jesus today, I want you to come down here right now and we’re going to pray for you,” says BVM leader Yasmin Pierce.
From the third-floor people streamed down to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
At another tour stop, a young man on the BVM team shared the gospel with three males. “They were so gripped that they call their friends over. All nine of them give their lives to Jesus,” says Pierce.
Most campuses and universities have less than 5% of the student body engaged in Christian community. On many campuses it’s closer to 1%, Pierce estimates.
A few years ago, a part of Circuit Riders sensed an important call to reach HBCUs. “We started to meet all of these on-fire Black, Bible-believing leaders who felt called to be missionaries; they started joining Circuit Riders,” Pierce recalls.
In Revelation 7, the writer John describes a vision of every nation, tribe and tongue before the throne of Jesus Christ, declaring in a loud voice that salvation belongs to God. “That’s the heart of Black Voices Movement and Circuit Riders,” Pierce says.
A missionary herself, Pierce knows students want a relationship with Jesus, who says to pray for laborers to bring in the harvest.
“We’re empowering this generation to share the gospel and, specifically, young Black men and women as laborers, creatives, musicians, worship leaders, preachers and evangelists,” says Pierce.
While BVM is sometimes mistaken for Black Lives Matter in political conversations, the two movements are worlds apart. “In Joshua chapter 5, God shows up and He tells him He’s on neither side.
“Even Moses, Joshua’s predecessor, tried to work justice from his frame of mind, but God pulled him to the burning bush to say, ‘I have My way of doing this; surrender to Me for the work I want to do,'” Pierce says.
Simply, BVM provides a biblical understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. “He’s a God of solution and, as we surrender to Him, He will lead us to be ministers of solution,” says Pierce.
BVM is driven, especially as missionaries, by the Great Commission to preach the gospel in every nation according to Matthew 24.
Throughout revival history, large open-air meetings marked by bold proclamation of the gospel have produced great harvests.
Seeking to fulfill its role as a tool of Holy Spirit awakening, BVM is headed to Newark, New Jersey—with its majority-minority population—in April for a weeklong gospel festival including preaching, training and outreach. The main event is Friday evening, April 21 beginning at 7 p.m. {eoa}
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Steve Rees is a former general assignment reporter who, with one other journalist, first wrote about the national men’s movement Promise Keepers from his home in Colorado. Rees and Promise Keepers Founder Bill McCartney attended the Boulder Vineyard. Today Rees writes in his free time.
